Avatar: How Azula Escaped Prison After The Last Airbender Ended
Azula's story doesn't end with the series finale of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Entitled “Sozin’s Comet: Part 4: Avatar Aang,” the animated series' final episode saw Zuko (Dante Basco) and Katara (Mae Whitman) help Avatar Aang (Zach Tyler Eisen) end the Hundred Year War by defeating and capturing a mentally unstable Azula (Grey DeLisle) in the Fire Nation Capital.
Azula was introduced during the season 1 episode "The Storm" as Prince Zuko’s deranged and vicious sister. Azula constantly undermines Zuko and shares the same viewpoint as Ozai that the Fire Nation reigns supreme over the other nations. Azula served as one of the primary antagonists of the series.
After the television series ended, Azula’s story was continued within the three-part Avatar: The Last Airbender comics The Search and Smoke and Shadow from Dark Horse Comics. Unlike Fire Lord Ozai (Mark Hamill), who was imprisoned for his crimes against the other elemental nations, Zuko has Azula admitted into a mental institution instead of prison, which she escapes from within the comic book The Search: Part 1. However, Azula only begins to recover after she escapes captivity and journeys with Zuko to find their long lost mother, Ursa.
In the comic The Search: Part 1, Azula escapes from captivity after Zuko asks for her help to uncover the location of their mother, who disappeared six years prior. Meeting with Ozai in his prison cell to gain information about Ursa, Azula gets the drop on Zuko despite wearing a straitjacket by grabbing a tea tray with her teeth out of Zuko’s hands. Thinking Azula is planning something, Ty Lee, now a Kyoshi guard within the prison, chi blocks Azula so she can’t use her firebending. Ironically, Ty Lee’s chi blocking leads to Azula’s escape, as it makes her flexible enough to wiggle free from her restraints. Shooting lightning at Zuko, Azula escapes to a secret room where Ozai kept unsent letters written by Ursa, burns them, and bargains for her freedom by stating she’ll share their contents if Zuko brings her along on his search for Ursa. Warily, Zuko temporarily grants Azula her freedom and they embark on a mission to find their mother.
Within the comic The Search: Part 3, Azula escapes from Zuko and Team Avatar after confronting Ursa, whom they found within the town of Hira’a. Having saved one of the letters written by Ursa that claimed Zuko wasn’t Ozai’s true heir, Azula originally planned on using the letter to oust and assume the throne herself, not knowing that the contents of the letter weren’t true. After her first plan fell through, Azula resurfaces within the comic series Smoke and Shadow with a new plan to gain revenge against Zuko.
Instead of trying to gain the throne herself, Azula begins to kidnap children with her asylum inmates under the guise of mythical spirits known as the Kemurikage with the intention of coaxing Zuko into ruling with the same tyranny exhibited by the former Fire Lord, Ozai. Azula confesses to Zuko that her new destiny is to transform him into the authoritarian ruler she would have been, basically becoming the Fire Lord through him.
While her actions seem like classic Azula, flaunting her power over Zuko simply for the fun of it, there is evidence throughout both Avatar: The Last Airbender comics that Azula may have been acting in Zuko’s best interest and is beginning to grow now that she's no longer under Ozai's control. In The Search: Part 3, Azula’s plan to overthrow Zuko as the Fire Lord only failed when she left the letter claiming Zuko wasn’t Ozai’s heir behind, which may have been intentional. At the end of Smoke and Shadow: Part 3, Azula watches as Zuko apologizes to his citizens for his dictatorial actions wearing a knowing smirk, almost as if getting Zuko to trust in his instincts as a fair and just ruler was her true plan all along.